


Karasuno's New Guardian Deity

by fantasyseal



Series: A Boy and his Ace [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crush, First Meeting, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 18:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8256707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantasyseal/pseuds/fantasyseal
Summary: It's the start of a new semester, and the Karasuno High Volleyball Club is holding tryouts with a first-year libero.(Edit: I am dumb and got the series backwards. This is perfectly standalone; I meant it as a prequel to another story I wrote, but you can read them in either order.)





	

“Remind me again why we’re doing introduction day twice?” Asahi asks.

Daichi sighs. “Because there’s no point in trying out a libero when everyone else needs to do spiking drills to show off what they can do, and slowing it down enough that he could try and receive all the balls from the spikers would mean we’d never get to go home.”

Asahi just grumbles in response, and Suga laughs. “Come on, Asahi, they weren’t scared of you the first time…”

“They wouldn’t get within ten feet of me.”

“They’ll loosen up!” Suga says. “They’re all still too scared to tell me to toss to them, too, it’s not just you.”

Daichi snorts. “How’s your ‘I know I’m your upperclassman but when we’re on the court I need you to ignore that’ speech going?”

Suga rolls his eyes. “ _Terribly._ I’ve only gotten one of them to drop the -senpai so far, the one with the shaved head—the wing spiker,” he adds. “I know there’s two.”

“That’s one for four,” Daichi says, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice. “Maybe once we have a practice match and they lose because no one wants to call for a toss they’ll get it.”

Suga elbows him. “Like you didn’t have the same problem with our official setter last year…”

“Shhh,” Daichi says, and points at the door, where their captain is talking to someone they can’t see. “I think our libero’s finally here.”

“Oops. Time to look busy,” Suga says, pulling out his sheet of hand signals. “Here, we need to go over these anyway…”

The three second-years immediately engross themselves in the hand signals, Suga flashing them behind his back and quizzing Daichi and Asahi on their meaning. Both of them know the signals cold, but it’s useful to go over them once in a while, Suga insists. They keep going until they hear a throat clear behind them, and look up.

“What’s up, Kurokawa-san?” Daichi asks, and Kurokawa raises one eyebrow.

“Don’t tell me you forgot we’re testing the first-year libero today. That’s why we sent the other first-years home, remember?”

Daichi laughs. “Is he here yet?”

“Sure is,” Kurokawa says, “so get your butts out on the court.” Suga refolds his signal sheet, and the three of them head out to the court, where the third-years are already gathered.

Sugawara looks around. “…Where is he?” His question’s answered when the door opens and a spiky-haired kid comes through it.

Daichi raises an eyebrow. “I know liberos are usually pretty short, but…”

“Is he spiking his hair to look taller?” Suga whispers. “There’s no way it just sticks up like that…”

“ _Shhh,_ ” Kurokawa hisses at them. “He’ll hear you.”

Suga and Daichi shut up; Asahi’s busy staring.

The kid is _really_ short, but he’s also really cute (though he has a feeling if he says that out loud the kid will bite his head off). He’s got his arms folded and is glaring like he can hear Suga and Daichi, though he can’t possibly all the way across the court.

_He looks like he’s daring us to kick him out._

“Asahiiiiiii,” Suga says in his Listen to the Captain tone, and Asahi jolts.

“Sorry, what?”

“Falling asleep on me, Azumane?” Kurokawa says, grinning. “We’re going to go around and introduce ourselves with our position; third-years first, then second-years. Can you handle that?”

Asahi’s blushing, he can tell, so he just nods in embarrassed acknowledgment, and Kurokawa thumps him on the back. “Good!” He waves the short kid over.

“Right, this is the Karasuno High Volleyball Club—currently minus the other newbies in your year, kid…”

“ _Nishinoya.”_

Kurokawa blinks. “Pardon?”

The kid refolds his arms. “My name’s Nishinoya Yuu, not _kid._ Sir,” he adds as an afterthought. Sugawara has to cover his mouth to keep from laughing visibly, but his shoulders are definitely shaking, and Asahi can see his smile. None of the second-years had _dared_ interrupt their captain last year, and seeing how Kurokawa reacts (he’s just blinking while he tries to find his train of thought again) is _hilarious._

Kurokawa pointedly looks down at the libero. “Save that for our opponents, kid.” Nishinoya’s eyebrows come together in a frown for an instant before smoothing back out.

“Right, then,” Kurokawa says. “Positions.” The third-years go first, and then it’s the second-years’ turn.

“Sawamura Daichi, defense specialist/wing spiker.”

“Koushi Sugawara, setter.”

“Azumane Asahi, wing spiker.” _That wasn’t too hard._ It’s easier without anyone staring at him; Nishinoya is still glaring at their captain.

“And that’s Shimizu Kiyoko, our manager,” Kurokawa finishes. Kiyoko’s sorting through the paperwork for the new semester, but she does look up and wave to Nishinoya, who doesn’t appear to notice.

“Nishinoya Yuu,” Nishinoya snaps out, looking up at Kurokawa. “Libero.” Asahi’s never seen anyone turn the usual polite bow into something so completely _sarcastic._ Nishinoya bows as deeply as he can, emphasizing his already-short height, and straightens back up like there’s a rubber band attached to him and the ceiling. Sugawara’s still shaking with the effort of holding in his laughter when he runs off to set.

“Hitting lines!” Kurokawa calls. “We’re just going to do one, so wing spikers, you get to be middles for the day.” Daichi and Asahi groan, but Kurokawa calls, “A good player can spike from anywhere!” and the two of them get into the back of the line like good second-years.

“No going easy on him!” Kurokawa yells from the front of the line, pointing at Nishinoya, and Asahi stares.

“Does Kurokawa-san really expect him to cover the entire court?”

“Looks like it,” Daichi says. “Our new teammate must really have ticked him off. Watch…” Kurokawa tosses the ball up to Suga, who sets it back, and Kurokawa launches into the air and hits it hard.

Asahi winces, seeing the target. “He’s aiming away from Nishinoya on purpose.”

Nishinoya’s eyes narrow on the other side of the net, and Asahi barely sees him move; one moment he’s guarding the center, the next the ball’s flying neatly to exactly where Sugawara would be on that side of the net.

The libero watches it fall, throws a challenging look at the next spiker in line, and walks back to the middle of the court, and Daichi snorts.

“I like him.”

 _Me too,_ Asahi thinks. Nishinoya’s practically glowing as he waits for the next ball; Asahi’s not even sure he sees this as a challenge.

Asahi’s in front of Daichi, and he grabs a ball and tosses it to Suga, who mouths _good luck_ as he sets it up for Asahi. Asahi pulls his arm back, jumps, and hits it as hard as he can; he sees Nishinoya take off for it as he drops back down.

Nishinoya gets the ball, but it doesn’t fly to the setter position; someone would have had to bump it in a real game, and Asahi swears he hears Nishinoya _tch_ under his breath as he walks back.

“Good job,” Daichi says quietly as he walks past, and Asahi shrugs.

Nishinoya is _ridiculously_ good, actually; not even Kurokawa can deny that. He hasn’t let one drop yet, despite everyone using their best dirty tactics to get their spikes past him. At one point he just jumps to the side and lets one of Kurokawa’s whistle past him; it lands barely out-of-bounds, and Nishinoya nonchalantly walks over and kicks it back to the spikers’ side of the net.

On Asahi’s next turn, Suga waves him over, and whispers “I have an idea.”

Asahi gives him a questioning look; Suga’s eyes have that impish twinkle they get when he’s thought of something particularly clever.

“We’re gonna fake him out,” Suga whispers. “When you toss me the ball, run to the side instead of the middle, all right?”

Asahi frowns. “I don’t think…”

“Trust me.” Suga winks, and Asahi shrugs. He does trust Suga; it’s difficult not to, so he goes back and tosses his ball and cuts to the side, noticing Nishinoya’s eyes follow him.

The libero looks exhausted; it’s hard to tell running, but Asahi thinks his legs are shaking. His eyes are still alert as they follow Asahi, though…wait, why is he watching Suga?

No time to worry about it. He hits his usual position, crouches, jumps, and…

there’s no ball.

Asahi flicks his eyes over to Suga, who’s jumping for the toss, just in time to see Suga smirk and change his hand position to shoot it straight down on the other side of the net.

 _I didn’t know he knew how to do a dump shot…_ He’s distracted by Nishinoya, who dives forward and gets his hand under the ball. It doesn’t fly in anything like a straight line up, but it _is_ up, and Nishinoya pulls himself to his feet with a triumphant grin.

“All right, that’s enough,” Kurokawa calls, and the team collectively exhales and scatters to their water bottles.

Asahi goes to make sure Nishinoya is alive. He’s sitting on a bench rubbing his chin, which is bright red, and Asahi winces. He must have done his last dive badly.

“Are you all right?” he asks, and Nishinoya looks up at him and grins.

“That was _fun._ ” Considering how red his face and arms are, and the fact that his shirt is literally soaked in sweat, Asahi’s not sure ‘fun’ is the word he’d choose.

Nishinoya continues, “I don’t _believe_ how strong everyone on this team is! Some of those were really hard…” He sounds genuinely excited. “I’ve never gotten to try and save a dump shot before!”

Asahi laughs. “I didn’t even realize Suga was going to do that.”

“Really?” Nishinoya asks, pausing to take a gulp of water. “I figured he was going to use you as a decoy at some point, ‘cause yours are the hardest to receive in time, so I have to watch you more closely…” He shakes his hand out. “I barely got to it in time.”

“Well,” Asahi says, “after that I don’t think anyone’s going to argue that you’re our new official libero.”

That earns him a laugh. “Aren’t I the _only_ libero? Everyone else was spiking.”

Asahi can’t really argue with that; they don’t have a libero at all since the third-year who played for them last year graduated.

Kurokawa’s calling a team meeting, and Asahi stands up. “Come on, the captain’s calling.” Nishinoya grumbles something that sounds rude, but he gets up.

“All right, Nishinoya,” Kurokawa says when they get over to the rest of the team. “Receive like that against our opponents and you’re our new libero.” The team erupts in cheers; a libero’s the last position they need to have a full complement again. Nishinoya, for his part, is grinning wildly, and Asahi is rapidly discovering exactly how _fast_ a crush can develop. Suga’s definitely noticed; that impish smirk is back, and Asahi is _sure_ it’s not from his first-ever dump shot.

As they’re changing in the locker room, Nishinoya bounds up to him. “Asahi-san?”

“Ah, what is it?” Asahi asks. He will act normal, he _will;_ he is a second-year now and perfectly capable of carrying on a normal conversation with a boy he’s known for all of two hours.

Even if said boy is _impossibly_ cute.

Nishinoya’s bouncing on his heels, and Asahi realizes something.

Nishinoya’s not scared of him.

Nishinoya hasn’t asked if he was held back.

Nishinoya, in spite of the fact that he’s about half Asahi’s size and has every reason to not want to be anywhere near Asahi, is just standing there fidgeting and chewing nervously on his lip.

Asahi’s about to ask what he wants again when Nishinoya blurts, “Do you think I should ask your manager out?”

Sugawara’s apparently hit his keeping-in-laughter limit for the day; he sinks to the floor, shoulders shaking in poorly suppressed mirth.

_He’s straight._

_He’s_ really _straight._

“Uh…”

“Not a chance, Noya,” one of the third-years calls, sounding amused. “You’re welcome to try it if you promise to film it!”

Nishinoya goes off to argue with the third-year, and Asahi sits down heavily on the bench and puts his head in his hands; Sugawara and Daichi come over to offer their sympathy a minute later.

“Sorry, Asahi,” Daichi says.

“There’s other boys,” Suga adds, patting his shoulder.

Asahi just groans. He hopes this crush goes away. Practice is going to be absolute hell until it does.

 

Nishinoya’s beating himself up on the way home. He’d _meant_ to ask for Asahi-san’s phone number, but his nerve failed him (which is an insult in and of itself, Nishinoya Yuu does not _back down_ ) and he wound up asking about Kiyoko-san instead.

He rubs his arm, still red from all those receives, and groans. _Maybe tomorrow._

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Nishinoya! :D  
> I kind of like the idea that Noya was more of a cocky little shit than he is now in his first year, what can I say. Hope characterization and everything's okay...I haven't seen the Haikyuu with Kurokawa in it in ages, so he's probably wildly ooc, sorry. I'm just going to pretend he was more of a jerk in high school.  
> I also wrote this in like, two hours, whoops. I really wanted to get it up today once I realized it was Noya's birthday. Hope you enjoyed the read!


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